Clayton Kershaw has 20 wins this year. Five of them have come against the arch-rival Giants. Four of them have come when Tim Lincecum was going for San Francisco. In short, he has crushed his enemies, has seen them driven before him, and has heard the lamentation of their women.

Last night was no different. He allowed one run on six hits over seven and a third. He has done his fair share to stay in — and maybe take a slight lead — in the three-man race for the NL Cy Young award. Yes, his 2.27 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and 242/53 K/BB ratio in 226 innings keeps him very close to Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee, but his 20 wins on a weak team may give voters something to grab onto in the near-impossible task of differentiating these guys.

As for Lincecum, he has had quite a bad bit of luck this year. Against Kershaw this season he has an 0-3 record, but a 1.24 ERA. Someone may look at his 13-13 record and ask “what’s wrong with Timmy,” but the first thing that needs to be said about that is that Lincecum got zero or one run of support in 11 of those losses. Overall he’s been a better pitcher this year than he was last year.

The wins just tell a different story. One that says more about the Giants’ offense — and a man named Kershaw — than they do about Lincecum himself.

The stats you pulled up are the average for the entire year, correct? Give me the run support over, say the last 5 starts for Halladay and Lee. I haven’t looked but I bet it’s around 3 runs per game average. Point is that the Phillies have not supported Halladay and Lee like they did earlier in the season.

thefalcon123 - Sep 21, 2011 at 10:18 AM

Run Support, Last 5 starts:
Halladay: 4.4 runs run per game
Lee: 3.4 runs per game
Kershaw: 2.8 runs per game

Chris Fiorentino - Sep 21, 2011 at 9:02 AM

One thing I think a lot of people are doing is undervaluing the Dodgers 2011 season. just because McCourt screwed them up, doesn’t mean they absolutely stink. They are a game over .500 and just for some perspective, if they can finish the year 6-2 they will have the exact record as the 2006 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals. So let’s not treat Kershaw’s 2011 like he is Steve Carlton on the 59-win 1972 Phillies already. Yeah, the Dodgers aren’t making the playoffs…but they aren’t all THAT bad.

Dee Gordon/Jamey Carroll would start at short for the Brewers. Not that comparing anybody to Yuni is really fair, but still.

Chris Fiorentino - Sep 21, 2011 at 9:46 AM

What does that have to do with their record, which is what I referred to in my post? I was simply saying that the Dodgers aren’t that bad…they are over .500 and they could end up with the same record as a team that recently won the World Series. Their record is middle of the pack in the NL…they are currently 7th in the NL and 14th of 30 teams in the Major Leagues. This isn’t Zack Greinke of 2009 or anything. The Dodgers are not a terrible team. They aren’t even a bad team. They are about average.

As much as I think Kershaw should and will win the Cy Young; wins are the most worthless statistic for a pitcher. ERA, WHIP, K/BB Ratio to IP, and WAR are much more valuable. All what wins prove are that you get better run support than runs against. Not their fault their team had poor hitting!

Generally, I agree. You can’t look at wins and say “X got more than Y, so he’s the better pitcher.” I do, however, think that someone winning a lot of games, especially compared to the teams total wins, should get a little extra credit. There’s a definite effect on the pitcher’s psyche. When Halladay faces the Cubs, for example, he’s *supposed* to win; when Kershaw faces the Cubs, he must wonder whether or not the Dodgers’ offense will show up to the game.

As a lifelong Giants fan I am genetically predisposed to hate anything associated with the Dodgers. In 48 years of fandom, Kershaw is the only Dodger I have ever coveted. Not because we need the pitching, but because not having to face him would give the Gs at least five more shots at a win per year. It’s no lie; the guy OWNS the Giants. He is a beast.

long long past Sabes being a good GM, the offensive fortune of last year, and the heavy roll the pitching staff continues to post is beautiful,, we will have to hope he can build a better offense and keep much of the ‘pen before this epic collection of still young starting pitching window starts to close
he may not have been an idiot back in ’93, but was surely lucky that Kent worked out so so well, lucky because that really wasn’t his plan
not sure he has ever really had a plan
long have been sure he is a fool
and we have been forced to suffer him
a long waited Championship still tastes o so good, but,,, the window for this team,,, our future,,, the future of Sabes,,,,

Craig was sitting on his high chair, not really paying attention to the several dozen highlights that the display was running through in the sixteen smaller screens split across his 70″ LED frame. Lots of interesting things going on there (Molina managed to go from first to home on an extra-base hit? Without a throw to the plate? Damn those Cardinals!). Instead he was lost in thought, idly puffing a few bubbles from his pipe, the collar on his Braves bathrobe a bit slack. This NL Cy Young business was more inscrutable with each passing day.

He perked up and walked to his lab table where the machine sat. Looking a lot like a multi-function office copier, he opened a side panel and made a series of adjustments on his machine. He closed it up and set his display to NL Cy Young with his three bobble head figures on the scanning surface.

The machine rumbled, a light ran across the figures and the machine started spitting out results: “Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers… OWNS THE GIANTS… Cliff Lee Phillies… OWNS THE POSTSEASON… Roy Halladay, Phillies… OWNS BASEBALL… INSUFFICIENT DATA… IT IS THEO EPSTEIN’S FAULT…”

Craig sighed, even his machine was blaming everything on Theo! He then noticed an Ian Kennedy bobble-head figure on the corner of his table with a tag reading: “I GOT 20 WINS, SHOW SOME LUV!”. He rolled his eyes and proceeded to lecture the small toy on the finer points of modern statistics.

“Wins are overrated Ian, it shows more about how the team is doing when you pitch than actual pitching ability,” he then backhanded the figure causing it fly off his table and walked back to his fireplace and high chair.

He had work to do, posts to write, baseball to analyze, Theo Epstein blame articles to debunk…

Caught some of the Arizonas broadcast today. Not sure if Grace said it or his partner, but one joked that the DBacks MVP this year should be Kershaw, 5-0 against the Giants this year,, &^**&^&ing *&^&,, If he wins the Cy, he should send a thank you to SF, and a Christmas card to Timmy. He should want to get on his good side cuz Timmy will be gunning for him hard next year.
Kershaw is a beast, best to him and can’t wait to get even next year, (*&^*^(*&%^

You obviously haven’t seen any Dodgers games for at least the past two seasons. Terrible team, poorly aligned by the idiots running the team, horrible contracts and signings, weak hitting, unreliable/pathetic pitching by any starter not named Kershaw/Kuroda, failure to hit in the clutch and with RISP, on and on. Without Kershaw and Kemp, they’d be so far back in the cellar it’s unreal.

gogigantos - Sep 21, 2011 at 11:50 AM

I hope the Cy voters don’t notice, because he is a BEAST, but dealing against the worst worst worst offense in the NL six times isn’t such a feat, really. Damn my Gints pain me sometimes, most of my life,,,, love and baseball,,,
“Son don’t fall in love, the Giants will break your heart worse than any woman ever will”,, Well, Once all the way sure is good.
Yo, Sabes, you fool, this starting rotation of epicness deserves a couple more shots in October, so get it right. Fool.

Kershaw is being paid 1/20th of the salary of a Cliff Lee because he hasn’t reached free agency yet. That’s how the economics of baseball contracts works, genius.

Trying to buy titles? Are you serious? The Dodgers never brought in high priced free agents in the past? For years and years, the Dodgers were a top 4 salary team with tons of high priced talent until McCourt ran your team into the ground. Don’t give me that BS that the Dodgers never tried to buy titles.

He did pony up big dollars for a feminized Manny-B-Manny, not going to look too hard, but he has spent on the free agents, J Pierre is still payed by the Fodgers? and the payroll in general. The problem seems that he spent more on his lifestyle and pinched on security.
Please be careful throwing around genius titles ‘Cepts

Asshat McCourt didn’t REALLY spend on free agents… He leveraged and borrowed and deferred, and that’s why he’s in so much financial trouble now. All that came due, and he’d spent the real money on himself and his bitchwhore wife. Can I say asshat and bitchwhore on here? I guess I just did. 4 times.